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Gunman Kills 19 Children and Two Teachers at Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; Parent of Shooting Victim in Uvalde Talk about His Daughter; Video of Gunman Entering School Before Classroom Attack; Senators: Bipartisan Talks Underway on Guns, Background Checks. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 26, 2022 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[08:00:27]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Thursday, May 26th. I'm John Berman live in Uvalde, Texas. Brianna Keilar in Washington this morning.

And behind me now this new memorial stands outside the Robb Elementary School. You can see the sign there. There were people walking up to that sign all day yesterday with flowers and balloons. And then overnight, the cross, one for each of the 19 children and two teachers who died here.

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BERMAN: This was the digital community last night. Everyone came together. You can see the pain and the tears, which really does feel like a small town, 15,000 people. And it's hard to find anyone that does not have a direct connection to one of the victims. Tess Marie Mata was 10-years-old. She was saving every dollar. She wanted to go Disney World. Nevaeh Bravo was also 10. She is being remembered as a young girl who put a smile on everyone's face. We are telling their stories this morning. The fourth grade teacher who sacrificed herself trying to protect the children, and the grieving father who find out that his daughter died trying to save her classmates.

We were told a short time ago that yesterday nine of the bodies were turned over to the families, to the funeral homes. The rest will be turned over this morning so that the families can make arrangements.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We do have some new details about how the mass shooting unfolded. The 18-year-old gunman was on school grounds for up to an hour before law enforcement shot and killed him. Moments before his deadly attack, he absolutely sent a series of chilling text messages to a girl in Germany that he had met online. An armed officer confronted the shooter outside of the school, but the shooter still managed to get inside the building, though he dropped a bag full of ammunition before he entered. We are just learning that there is surveillance video. President Biden is expected to travel to Uvalde here in the coming days to meet with victims' families.

BERMAN: Moments ago, I spoke with Dr. Lillian Liao, a pediatric trauma medical director at University Health in San Antonio, where three children are being treated.

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DR. LILLIAN LIAO, PEDIATRIC TRAUMA MEDICAL DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY HEALTH: Broadly speaking, we were treating destructive enrollment. And what that means is that there were large areas of tissue missing from the body, and they required emergency surgery because there was significant blood loss.

BERMAN: Dr. Liao, I know this is your job. But I also know that not every day is the same, and that this had to be particularly difficult for you and all of your colleagues. Can you talk about that?

LIAO: Yes. I think it was a difficult day for all of America. From our standpoint, we had the experience of Sutherland Springs at our level pediatric center. In that experience, we weren't prepared for this mass casualty event, and gathered teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians very quickly. And we waited. And also from the experience, we realized that when we're dealing with high velocity firearm injuries, we may not get a whole lot of patients. And I think that's what hit us the most, not of the patients that we did receive, and we are honored to treat them, but the patients that we did not receive. I think that is the most challenging aspect of our job right now.

[08:05:00]

BERMAN: I was at Sutherland Springs, and what a commentary I think at this point if you have experience. It says something that you and your teammates are experienced in dealing with mass shooter events. As you said, in a way, it is unusual to receive injuries that you can treat. I do also know that there were some who arrived deceased already at the hospital, which makes it even harder.

As I said, officials have told us that one of the patients being treated in your facility, it is the grandmother, the 66-year-old woman who was shot by the killer here. Anything you can tell us about her condition this morning?

LIAO: She's critical but stable as well.

BERMAN: Dr. Liao, how are you doing this morning?

LIAO: I'm doing great. I have a full day of surgery planned for our team, looking to seeing our patients this morning on rounds. And like everyone, we are probably a little shaken up. But my job is to be focused, our job at the trauma center is to be focused on treating the patients that we did receive, and that's what we're going to do today.

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BERMAN: I just want to give our thanks again to Dr. Liao, a real professional. I don't think she was expecting for it to get to her like it did this morning. But it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming when you stop to let yourself think about what happened, even for someone like Dr. Liao, who has seen this before, who went through this, treating patients from Sutherland Springs, another mass shooting just a short distance from here. So again, our thanks to her. Our thanks for the work that she is doing.

We are getting more developments into the investigation as to how this unfolded. I am joined by CNN's Shimon Prokupecz. And Shimon, we just talked to Lieutenant Chris Olivarez of the Department or Public Safety. They're leading the investigation, trying to piece together the timeline. A few new details. Number one, the school resource officer who did engage with the killer before he got in the building, he was armed. He did have a gun. At this point they have no evidence that he used it.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think you made a very good point with the lieutenant, is that this is not about second-guessing. But we need answers, right, and these parents need answers. And emotions are really starting to run high here. And I think in the days to come, as we are seeing from this doctor, we're going to see more emotion as we get ready for funerals and more stories are starting to come out about what was going on here?

And some of these stories are just from the parents who were out here carrying the gunshot, standing out here as their kids are inside listening to gunshots. And so that's the role here is that we need to have answers as to why it took so long for police to get inside the school and essentially kill this gunman, neutralize this gunman. We cover these shootings, sadly, time and time again. And every expert you speak to, every police department is trained to go in immediately to get to the shooter, to stop the gunfire. And it just seems like we don't have those answers here yet.

And obviously, they're still sort through a lot of information. One of the things that happen here is a lot of officers who responded were not from this area. And so that could be why they still haven't interviewed a lot of these officers. But we should know by now whether an officer was outside the buildings, exchanged gunfire with the gunman, whether the officer was wounded in any way, and why it is that officer didn't, what was the reasoning for this? And also the issue with the door.

BERMAN: Not locked?

PROKUPECZ: Not locked. The door was this back door that the gunman used to get inside the school was not locked.

BERMAN: The gap that you are talking about, just so people understand, is Lieutenant Olivarez told me that two officers did follow the shooter into the building. There was an exchange of gunfire after he got inside. He's not clear whether the officers made it inside the door or not, but it sounds like they might have, exchange of fire, they were wounded. They backed off.

Then there was a gap between when he had gotten into the classroom and when this tactical team ultimately went in. We don't know how long, the different numbers we've been given are 40 to 60 minutes. But it's not clear about whether that was from the moment the shooter arrived or got in the classroom. But there is a period of time when there was law enforcement on the scene, absolutely. No one disputes that, and they were not going in. Lt. Olivarez told me they were getting other people out of the building, which may be the case. But the question is, were there people here who could have or maybe should have been trying to get past that door sooner?

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PROKUPECZ: Right. And who was in charge? Who took the lead on this scene in those critical moments of when they decided that they were not going to storm the classroom or whether they were going to storm the classroom, who was the lead in deciding to put this tactical team together? We don't know. And why wasn't there, just quite simply, we just don't know so much.

The thing is they were waiting for the border patrol officers. That's the tactical team that ultimately arrives together with some of the sheriff's officers, that they form this team to go in. and CPB eventually brings 80 officers. That's a lot of officers here. But it took some time. And what was going on in those crucial moments while they're waiting for the tactical team. The officers that are assigned to this school, the school resource officer and that team only, it's four officers. It's a small town, so the police department isn't big enough. You have the sheriff's office. But everyone is supposed to be training for these moments to respond quickly, to get in there and stop it. And so we just simply need some answers. And I think stories will start coming out from these parents who really need the answers.

BERMAN: We could learn more over the next few hours. Shimon Prokupecz, you're asking the right questions. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. Brianna?

KEILAR: Ten-year-old Amerie Jo Garza was trying to do everything she could to save her classmate. His father Angel recounted his daughter's bravery in her final moments.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You are holding a picture of your daughter, she had just won honor roll.

ANGEL GARZA, FATHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM AMERIE JO GARZA: Yes. She --

COOPER: What do you want people to know about her?

GARZA: She was just trying to do the right thing. She was just trying to call the cops. She was so scared of just strangers and things like this, like she would lock the door when I would step out to put gas in the car. Like this is literally like her worst fear. And she was just trying to help everyone. COOPER: She talked of something like this?

GARZA: So I'm a med aid. So when I arrived on the scene, they saw kids inside. They started bringing the kids out. And I was aiding assistance. One little girl was just covered in blood head-to-toe. I thought she was injured. I asked her what was wrong. And she says she was OK. He was hysterical, saying that they shot her best friend, she killed her best friend, she's not breathing, and she was trying to call the cops. And I asked the little girl the name. And she told me, she said Amerie.

COOPER: That's how you learned?

GARZA: She was so sweet, Mr. Cooper. She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble in school. I just want to know what she did to be a victim?

COOPER: She loved being a big sister. You have a three-year-old?

GARZA: Yes, we have a three-year-old son named Zain (ph) who asks for his sister every morning when he wakes up.

COOPER: He doesn't know at this point I assume?

GARZA: We've informed him that his sister is now with God and that she will no longer be with us. And, of course, he just cried. He's three-years-old, and it's very emotional for him to even process. She just turned 10, her birthday was on the 10th, May the 10th, two weeks ago.

COOPER: Two weeks ago. You had a party for her?

GARZA: We had. We just gathered the family and had a dinner. She just got her phone. She had been wanting a phone for so long and we finally got it for her. She just tried to call the police.

COOPER: She actually tried to call?

GARZA: Yes. Yes, I got confirmation from two of the students in her classroom that she was just trying to call authorities, and I guess he just shot her.

[18:15:00]

How do you look at this girl and she -- oh, my baby. I miss you, my baby. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

COOPER: Of course, it is okay.

How's -- how's your wife?

GARZA: I just want to ask everybody to just keep my wife in their prayers. She -- Amerie had the best mother. She did everything she could for her daughter and she is just beating herself up so bad about this and baby, it's not your fault, I promise. She just wants you to be happy.

COOPER: Is there anything else you want people to know about Amerie?

GARZA: I just want people to know that she just died trying to save her classmates. She just wanted to save everyone.

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BERMAN: We do have new video just into CNN of the gun man entering the door at the Robb Elementary School, this happened on Tuesday.

[08:20:02]

We just learned that this door was unlocked. We were also just told a school resource officer that confronted the gunman before he entered the building was armed. But at this point we don't know for sure whether he fired his weapon. There is no evidence at this point that he did so.

Meanwhile, this shocked community is in morning trying to come to the other, amid the enormous loss.

I am joined by Erin Douglas, a reporter at "The Texas Tribune".

And, Erin, you have been out talking to people and it has a small town feel and so many people we talk to -- they have a connection to someone who was killed here. What are you hearing?

ERIN DOUGLAS, REPORTER, TEXAS TRIBUNE: Yeah. So, like you said, this is a very small town. It's a town of about 15,000 residents. And, yeah, that is the one thing that I kept hearing over and over, is that everyone grew up together. You know, generations of people grew up together. Kids grew up together, parents grew up together, grandparents grew up together.

And, you know, the entire community is in mourning. Everyone knows everyone. And every single person I have talked to has had some sort of connection with the one of the students or the adults who died in the shooting.

BERMAN: The judge who had to process the bodies, the justice of the peace told me he went to school here. His kids went to school here, and when he went in to identify the body, she realized that he knew one of the teachers because she was one year behind him in school. It's that type of community, where all the connections are close together.

You went to the blood drive here. What was that like?

DOUGLAS: Yeah. And so, the blood drive was yesterday morning and when I arrived, I arrived early, the line was already wrapped all the way around the block. Hundreds of people came out to support their community at that blood drive. They wanted to help in anyway that they could. And, you know, they actually outstripped the capacity of the south --

blood south Texas tissue center, because they had so many people who showed up to donate blood and they asked them to come back later this week. You know, the operations officer called it a beautiful and incredible turnout.

BERMAN: More than they could actually process at this point. Now, you and your reporting, part of your reporting partner in this case, and one of the articles you wrote, was that at a church, was that a prayer service and actually spoke to someone who sat next to the mother of the killer here, who was another that prayer service.

Talk to us about what was learned.

DOUGLAS: Yeah, so my colleague learned one woman, individual, at the church said that she spoke to the other of the shooter. And, you know, she called for -- she prayed with her. Sobbing and said we need to have forgiveness. I told her, it wasn't her fault is what she said and the community would pray with her and heal with her.

BERMAN: This community is praying together, all of them.

Erin, thank you so much for your reporting. We're big fans of the work that you do.

DOUGLAS: Thank you.

BERMAN: Appreciate it.

So, a heated debate on Capitol Hill and bipartisan discussion about gun safety gets under way. Is there a possibility that there is some ground for consensus?

We will speak to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, next.

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KEILAR: Senators are holding bipartisan talks on gun legislation. The talks come in the wake of this mass shooting in Texas, where 19 children were killed inside of their classrooms. Some of those lawmakers are making impassioned pleas for their colleagues to do something, anything to prevent future tragedies.

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SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Nineteen children who will never grow up to have another birthday and two teachers killed just doing their job and protecting the kids. Another day in America. Another mass shooting. It is devastating that this kind of mass shooting can happen here. It is unconscionable that it happens over and over.

It is unforgivable that we as leaders come together and mouth words and do nothing. It's too late to prevent the last shooting. We're already failed those victims and families. We need to act to prevent the next shooting. We need to identify the

risks and threats and finally do something.

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KEILAR: Joining us now is Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip and chair of the Judiciary Committee as well.

So, thank you so much for being with us.

If you can just tell us what the state is right now of these bipartisan conversations that are going on between senators?

DURBIN: Well, we've issued an invitation, and it's a good faith invitation to the Republicans to join us in a conversation.

The big question, Brianna, is this, was Uvalde, Texas, the tipping point? Is this what we have been waiting for?

We had so many opportunities. We looked at the high school in Florida. We look at the grade school in Connecticut.

And you think that was it. That's the one. That is so outrageous, we cannot fail to do something in response, and we did fail.

And the question is, is Texas any different? And I hope -- in this respect, I hope it is. I hope it motivates all of us to sit down and be honest with one another about what we can achieve as a nation.

KEILAR: You said there is an invitation. But there are also discussions, right? We heard Senator Chris Murphy saying that he's talking to some Republicans. I wonder what specific policy areas they maybe discussing.

He mentioned the red flag law, background checks. What can you tell us?

DURBIN: Those are the obvious ones. They come through -- time and again, when these mass shootings talk place, there are other elements in here. I'm not sure what this first step will include. I will certainly put those on the list.

But there are other approaches. And it really -- it's a question of whether or not we have reached that point. I sense that many people in America have had it. I mean, whether it's parents in Chicago or my own family, involving my grandchildren -- I'm getting communications, the likes of which I have not seen before. They're genuinely worried about the safety of doing the ordinary things in life.

And with that worry, I hope it's a motivation for us to finally get off the dime and do something to make America safer.

KEILAR: Senator Sinema is talking to Republicans.

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